


Bend Or Break

by QuickSilverFox3



Series: Whumptober 2020 [6]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, All tags don't apply to all drabbles, Blood and Injury, Drabble Collection, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eye Trauma, F/M, Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Last two are happy, Light Bondage, M/M, Nightmares, Suicidal Thoughts, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:49:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26840923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3
Summary: “Stop.” Joe’s voice was broken, throat torn to bloody shreds from his screams.No 6. PLEASE…. “Get it Out” | No More | “Stop, please”
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman, Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Booker | Sebastien le Livre, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nicky | Nicolo di Genova & Quynh | Noriko
Series: Whumptober 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947016
Kudos: 28
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Bend Or Break

“Stop.” Joe’s voice was broken, throat torn to bloody shreds from his screams. He coughed, pressing his head to the cold stone, covering more of its surface with lurid red blood. “Please.”

Nicky turned towards his voice, searching out Joe even with his eyes plucked from his skull. He began to struggle towards him, dragging his broken body, inch by painful inch. 

“ _ I’m here, Nicolo. I’m here. _ ”

His journey was cut off as a boot was stamped onto his fingers, filling the air with the crack of bone. The man leant down to Joe, his grin all bared teeth. “No.”

* * *

A hand in his hair yanked Booker’s head back, exposing his throat. 

“No more?” Andy’s voice was cold and calculating, the voice of a general who knew exactly where his limits lay and was determined to make him toe them. “That’s not what you say.”

She swung the crop once more, a line of fire erupting across his bare thighs, a groan erupting from his chest. It was as if something in his chest snapped, a floodgate of sorrow overwhelming him.

He stuttered out their safe word between racking sobs, and Andy smoothed a gentle hand over his burning skin. 

* * *

Joe gasped back into life, both hands flying to the piece of rebar that was lodged in his chest. The sticky confusion following death only lasted a moment, but the pain was harder to struggle through. Shock was almost immediate, a clumsiness to his fingers that were growing slick with blood.

If he didn’t pull it out, he would continue to die, over and over again, every death taking him further away from Nicky.

Would this be his final death, impaled and alone somewhere where Nicky couldn’t find him? He screamed dying again before he had run out of air.

* * *

If there ever was a deity watching over her, Quynh knew they were dead. What caring god could subject someone to this?

She could barely remember Nicolo’s face, but the rise and fall of his voice as he prayed was a sound imprinted into her bones.

It took her three deaths to wriggle her fingers past the warped top of her tomb, freedom within her grasp and yet so far away, to press her hands together. 

“Make it stop. Please,” Quynh whispered, letting the sea overwhelm her once again, succumbing to the darkness and screaming her fury when she awoke.

* * *

“—it out!” Nile screamed, digging her nails into her skin, carving out long ribbons before her hand was captured, pressing it back into the restraints. “Get it out!”

“How long.” Andy’s voice was flat, exhausted, and Copley sighed, looking as if he had aged a century in the past few days.

“I can’t say. They’re all expected but not like this.”

“And if we kill her, she will still be infected?” Booker asked hoarsely, eyes sunken. Copley nodded, and Booker groaned, burying his head in his hands.

“We wait. And we hope.” Andy said, gaze never moving away from Nile.

* * *

Booker gagged at the stale taste of wine that clung to his mouth, but he swallowed past the blockage in his throat, ignoring the acrid taste. He was lying in an alley, hair plastered to his face, driving rain beating bruises into his bare chest.

There was a bottle lying next to him, fumbling as he grabbed for it. 

“No more,” Booker whispered to himself, staring at the half full bottle, the wine diluted with rain. 

Everything hurt, and he was still alone. And a drunken death was preferable to that. It was a foul drink, but he finished it.

* * *

  
  


Joe knew the moment Nicky was awake, a certain stillness falling over the man he held curled in his arms. Another time, it would warm his heart, but a cold fear gripped him as Nicky curled in on himself, a broken sounding sob punched out of him.

“My love?” Joe sat up, curling over Nicky and saw shining tear tracks on his cheeks. 

“I can’t— No more, please,” Nicky begged, eyes wide and staring at the ghosts of his past.

Joe’s heart shattered, and he was helpless to do anything but kiss Nicky’s temple, murmuring soft words into his ear.

* * *

Andy’s face was bloodless except for the bubbles clinging to the edge of her mouth, expanding with each ragged breath.

“Get it out,” she groaned, each word sounding like a battle she was determined to win.

“No,” Nile snapped, lunging forward to grab Nicky’s wrist as he moved towards the metal sticking from Andy’s stomach. “She’s mortal now. She won’t heal.”

“Hospital?” Joe asked, hunched over the steering wheel.

“No hospital,” Andy spat.

“Yes hospital,” Nile ordered, jaw set. Andy looked like she was going to argue further, but her back bowed, eyes rolling into the back of her skull.

* * *

“Stop!” Nicky howled, curling in on himself in a vain attempt to wriggle away from Joe’s grip. He failed, dissolving in a fit of giggles as Joe buried his fingers into his ribs, pressing his face into the crook of Nicky’s neck to mouth at the skin there. 

“Do you want me to stop?” Joe asked, hauling Nicky onto his lap, pressing his hands into the warmth of Nicky’s stomach to hear him howl with laughter.

Nicky tried to speak, squirming in place, before he hooked a hand beneath Joe’s jaw, raising his face so he could kiss him properly.

* * *

“Please?”

Andy sighed, propping her sunglasses on top of her head to peer at Joe’s pleading gaze in the rearview mirror. Nicky was tucked beneath his arm, Nile sprawled out on top of him, carefully tucked beneath a blanket, and both were sound asleep.

“What do you think, Booker?”

Booker made a show of thinking, clicking his tongue and drumming his fingers on the steering wheel in a familiar melody. 

“Sure.”

Joe’s grin was blinding as Booker fiddled with the radio station before the fast paced pop beat filled the car. Andy leant her head back, and tried to sleep.


End file.
